Hi,
I suspect many folks have telecommuted, worked off-site, etc. As regular employees, subcontractors, etc. And, possibly with many *other* such INDEPENDENT people at the same time.
But, in my experience, this has always been for *a* "company" (client/employer). A real brick and mortar outfit (though I've worked for some "solo" operators, as well).
What I would like to explore are the issues associated with an entire company built with no real, "physical presence" (other than it's legal point of incorporation).
In other words, imagine the "accountant" being in Florida (I'm left-pondian so its easier for me to reference locations here :-/ ), the purchasing agent in Washington, engineering staff in Illinois and Texas, manufacturing in California, etc. (use your imagination)
There are few real needs for face to face meetings in most modern organizations -- aside from sheep-counters who can only justify their existence by pointing to the flock they are tending :>
And, **any** sort of documents can surely be on the recipient's desk "instantly" (subject to network availability).
There's no reason for components ordered by the purchasing agent in Washington *not* to be deliverable to the manufacturing facility in California. Nor for the "bill" to be sent to the accountant in Florida. A customer cares not whether his device is shipped from location X or location Y -- so long as it arrives at *his* location.
Etc.
(are there any logistical limitations that I am overlooking or trivializing?)
The point that most immediately comes to mind is one of "trust". This is true in all business relationships where a party is "unsupervised" (is that consultant *really* working on my project? or, is he off playing golf? will he meet his delivery date? will I discover this before its "too late"? etc.). I tend to have a pretty naive/simple way of looking at this sort of thing: if you don't trust your suppliers/clients/customers/etc. then why are you doing *business* with them?
What other issues might come up?
[note that I am deliberately ignoring compensation, business relationships between entities, etc. at this point]Has anyone ever worked in/for such a "decomposed" organization? Any insights to share?
Thx,
--don